In order to mark our 30th birthdays this year, we would love to be able to give a substantial gift to the Knowledge Facilitators' Club (KNOFACIC) in our home village of Lwemuna, in Uganda.

People living in Lwemuna live a simple but hardworking life. The aim of KNOFACIC is to give them an opportunity to go further in life. Here are the main things that we would like to do with the money:

Increase teachers' salaries

KNOFACIC now has a nursery and primary school, which was started by the rural community, for the community. Before 2014, Lwemuna had no nursery school, meaning that the children were at a disadvantage before they had even started school since they were not getting the necessary foundation to their education. A retired Headteacher and his wife decided to start a nursery, recruiting local retired teachers with a passion for helping the community on a largely voluntary basis. We would love to increase these teachers' salaries to encourage them in their good work and keep them motivated. This includes the tailoring and carpetry teachers in the vocational school.

Improve the school buildings

As their first cohort of children completed nursery school, they were reluctant to move to the local government school, due to the poor teacher commitiment, large class size, and little potential to go further. Therefore, the concept of the KNOFACIC Primary School was born. In order to serve these children best, we need better, purpose-built, stronger buildings.

Build a playground

We would love to provide these children with a place to play. Many of these children come from homes where there are required to help around the house from morning until evening, and have little opportunity to be children. Play has been shown to be very important in the development of both physical and social skills, but sadly it is not something prioritised in the Ugandan education system.

The primary school project is part of KNOFACIC (Knowledge Facilitators' Club), which also encompasses a vocational training school (tailoring and carpentry), orphan/widow outreach programme and other small projects, which also require constant funding.